Tell me your credit card processing stories!

[LittleGriff]

Ok, so I never expected to be talking about credit card processing on Mothering! (laugh) I've been working with some friends on a startup to help small business owners find transparent, no-hassle credit card processing services. In addition we're trying to keep a blog and create other useful/helpful online content to help small business owners learn about how to shop for such services. They both have direct experience with this as small biz owners themselves but I'm a bit in the dark about the day to day realities of accepting/processing credit cards. I've done a ton of reading over the last 6 mo's but it's just not quite the same as living the reality of shopping for services, dealing with shady sales men, downgrades and chargebacks etc.

It occurred to me that a lot of you might have some really good insights on this. I've searched back threads on this topic and gotten some good info. But I would be very grateful if anyone wanted to share their tips and stories of accepting credit cards (online, or in a store), how you approached your shopping, have you ever switched processors and why, what you wish you had known before OR if you are trying to shop for services for the first time, what information are you trying to learn, how is the shopping experience going for you?

Whatever you think people should know about accepting credit cards - I would love to hear it!

Thanks so much.

[nursingmom]

I started with Propay.com. They are very straight forward... I never had to call customer service because all the information I needed/wanted to know was on their website. Their fees are so straight forward and I loved it. There is no hidden fees or cancellation fees. However, once I started to accept more than $3000 a month and had one trasaction over $1000, I had to look for another processor.

So, now I'm with Authorize.net and there are so many fees that I wasn't clear about before I signed up. Different levels of fees... and they also have cancellation fee... and when I receive their statement, I have to spent so much time trying to figure out what is what. It's not so straight forward. I feel like they can make their fees more clear. But their fee statement is so complicated that I don't even want to look at it. I have engineering degree and really good with numbers. Yet these fee statements are just too annoying.

[kokonutmama]

I use Authorize.net, too, and they just charge me a flat $10 or whatever per month. (yeah, I don't have the number in my head, even though it happens every month)

I think it's the merchant account (ie, Merchant Warehouse) folks that have the complicated fees, not the gateway (ie Authorize.net)

Maybe I'm wrong, as business owner/managers go, I'm certainly on the low end of the statement scrutinizing scale.

[marija_jane]

I'd love to see this website and blog you are talking about. Could you post the link to it?

I have been using Propay but I want to switch to something so the cards will be processed automatically since time is so scarce. I am totally confused though!

What is the benefit of using authorize.net or something rather than going through my bank? (eg Chase Paymentech) I tried looking for some of the rates and fees but it seems like you have to dig and dig for this info at every different company and it could take a hundred hours to thoroughly research this-- and I would easily process all the credit cards manually in a fraction of that time!

I use Mals and I need something that will work with that. Any suggestions??